Many industrial processes operate at conditions that are harmful to humans. Such processes include infrastructure that require constant monitoring to ensure optimal performance and prevent dangerous conditions from developing.
Such infrastructure includes, for example, smoke stacks, pipes, ducting, shafts, ladles (for molten metal and the like), and raw mineral ore silos.
Apart from the dangerous operating conditions the physical size of the infrastructure also poses challenges to its inspection and repair.
Typically when such infrastructure is inspected a partial or full shutdown of the associated equipment and processes is required. For example, when a power plant smoke stack is conventionally inspected there cannot be any smoke passing through the smoke stack. For its inspection people have to access the inside of the smoke stack to manually inspect the brick work of the smoke stack and detect any problem areas. Any repairs are then done at the same time.
Such an inspection and repair process requires a shutdown of the smoke stack, which puts it out of service for at least one or two days. Even if no problems are found during the inspection which may require repair, the smoke stack is still out of service for a relatively long time.
At a time when energy demand is continuously increasing and the cost of building new plants is extensive and in some instances prohibitive, any unnecessary loss of availability of a smoke stack is a significant problem.
In respect of other industries downtime of processes and equipment due to routine inspection and repair also has a significant impact on the availability of such equipment.